1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mechanism for guiding shuttles in a circular loom.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a conventional circular loom, a shuttles are moved along a circular running passage and a weft taken out from each shuttle is inserted into successive sheds created before the arrival of the shuttle, and the weft is interwoven with warps to form a tubular fabric, as disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 4,424,836. This type of conventional circular loom has a serious problem, in that the wheels rotatably mounted to the shuttle run on the corresponding annular guides which form the circular running passage, while running on warps radially crossing the circular running passage. Therefore, if the material of the warp yarn is a material having a weak resistance to abrasion, such as a carbon fiber, often the material is damaged by the action of the above-mentioned wheels of the shuttles. Therefore, as there is now a growing tendency to produce a circular fabric by a material having a weak resistance to the above-mentioned abrasion, particularly for producing an industrial fabric, the above-mentioned problem has become very serious in view of the need to supply tube fabrics for industrial use which have strong mechanical properties.